TLS Continuum Part 20: What is in it for me?

As we discussed in the TLS Continuum Part 18: Changing Managers to Leaders, as managers/leaders in the new global; marketplace we have a new responsibility added to our workload. This new responsibility is to both educate and train our human capital assets so that the organization can move forward.

Wait a minute are they not the same term?

Talk to many in and outside of academia and they will tell you when we educate someone, we also train them. Others will tell you that they are two different sides of the same coin. In reality they are two separate terms. Academia might further argue with me that they are the same. In the context on the TLS Continuum they are two separate terms. Consider the differences as shown below.

Merriam Webster.com defines the term educate as the act of giving someone information about something. Everyday our organizations have opportunities to educate our human capital assets. You hire a new employee and put them through the onboarding process. The organization changes benefit packages and you need to explain the new terms. The list is endless as the marketplace changes.

Likewise, Merriam Webster.com tells us that the definition of Train is when we teach him or her, the skills needed to change the way they operate in our organizations. The organization has determined that certain employees need certain training in order to achieve certification in a particular function. The organization provides safety instruction to make sure the entire organization is on the same page with emergency planning.

Application of the training and educate to the TLS Continuum

While I began with the statement that the idea of educate and train are two different terms, when it comes to the TLS Continuum and continuous process improvement the two terms are interdependent. Once your organization makes the decision to change the corporate culture to one of quality delivery we begin a combination of the two efforts.

Management has made the decision to introduce the concept of corporate wide quality. As a result the process kicks in education for the human capital assets. It is critical that the entire organization understand what is going on that required these changes. Is the organization suffering from migration of major customers to another organization? Are your customers complaining about the level of mistakes in orders? Is the organization receiving more demands for your product or service then you can meet? The second level of education involves explaining to the organization as a whole what changes you are proposing and how they will change the face of the organization. The third level of education is that the presentation of the changes must include discussion of what is in it for them. How is their current job impacted? What is my future employment going to look like? Most important, what happens if we stay in a status quo and do nothing, then what does my job look like? The human capital assets must understand this is not a fad but an ongoing effort on the part of the organization.

On the flip side I refer you to TLS Continuum Part 18: Changing Managers to Leaders, in which I discuss the change of responsibilities for managers. Your management role is now of one to take the education they have been given and help them reach the organizational goal. Your responsibility is to take those who are not meeting those goals and coach them on how they can reach the goal or determine that this new work environment is not for them. In this case we then need to coach them out of the position. They confronted with two recourses. One is to move to another area of the organization or the other route is to leave the organization altogether.

So what is in for me? As a human capital asset of your organization I need you to adequately educate me on your plans, intent and future of the organization. Then I need you to train me on the skills necessary to meet those expectations. As a manger you then are expected to coach me on how to obtain those skills to obtain the quality levels of the organization.

The success of our continuous process improvement efforts is deeply based in a proper level of the combination of education and training for our human capital assets. The proper mix of the two is the way to guarantee your change of corporate culture will bring about the success that you are seeking.